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Adam D. Smith
As a Quantitative Ecologist with the United States Fish & Wildlife Service Inventory and Monitoring Program, I provide ecological inventory and monitoring design and analytical assistance to the roughly 130 National Wildlife Refuges. In addition, I engage in diverse partnerships with conservation and resource management agencies and organizations to support a research program built around modern quantitative tools and approaches to understand the ecology and conservation of migratory animals. Most of my active projects are collaborative and integrate digitally-coded telemetry or GPS logging technology to answer landscape and local scale questions relevant to conservation and management. I am an open science advocate.
Education
Ph.D., Environmental Science (avian ecology focus)
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI
2013
- Thesis: Migration and stopover ecology of songbirds and bats along a major ecological barrier
M.S., Raptor Biology
Boise State University
Boise, ID
2006
- Thesis: Exploring raptor migration using stable isotope analysis: the Northern Goshawk in western North America
B.S., Wildlife Biology
Murray State University
Murray, KY
2000
Professional Experience
Quantitative Ecologist
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services
Athens, GA
2019 - 2015
- Provide ecological, design, and analytical assistance to southeastern National Wildlife Refuges
- Build statistical models relevant to ecological research (e.g., occupancy models, hierarchical models)
- Develop methodologies and tools (e.g., R packages) that facilitate the synthesis and analysis of ecological data.
- Coordinate installation and maintenance of automated telemetry stations as part of the Motus Wildlife Tracking network
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI
2015 - 2013
- Described spatiotemporal variation in the behavior and abundance of sea ducks in southern New England and developed novel statistical methodologies to predict animal distribution and abundance relative to environmental covariates
- Studied post-breeding and migratory movement ecology of migratory birds using automated telemetry
Research Associate
University of Florida
N/A
2008
- Generated probabilistic (Bayesian) models of songbird resource use based on the isotopic composition of avian tissues and potential food resources to document the extent of community-level diet shifts and the seasonal importance of different food resources to migratory songbirds
Avian Research Technician II/III
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources
Frankfort, KY
2007 - 2005
- Coordinated and implemented statewide Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon monitoring, two Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) banding stations, migratory songbird banding, winter raptor surveys, and songbird banding training for staff and cooperators
Publications
(under review) Linking monitoring and data analysis to predictions and decisions for the range-wide eastern Black Rail status assessment. Endangered Species Research.
N/A
N/A
2019
(under review)
N/A
N/A
2019
(in revision) Florida’s strategic position for collaborative automated-telemetry tracking of avian movements across the Americas. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management
N/A
N/A
2019
Grants
Asterisks (*) indicate I was integral to project development, design, and implementation, but not an official PI due to institutional policies.
Local and post-breeding movements of Painted Buntings associated with molt
Carolina Bird Club
N/A
2019
- co-PI with Aaron Given (Town of Kiawah Island, SC)
- $3,500
*Evaluating the use of autonomous recording units (ARUs) to survey Black Rails
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services
N/A
2018
- PI Susan McRae (East Carolina University)
- $19,715
*Inventory and assessment of secretive marshbirds: using eDNA to determine occupancy with a focus on Eastern Black Rail and King Rail
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services
N/A
2017
- PI Susan McRae (East Carolina University)
- $27,352
*Black Rail ecology to inform effective survey design and support population modelling
U.S. Geological Survey
N/A
2016
- PI Clint Moore (U.S. Geological Survey)
- $172,907
Secretive marsh bird surveys on southeastern National Wildlife Refuges
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services
N/A
2016
- co-PI with Whitney Biessler (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)
- $92,700
Seasonal connectivity of MacGillivray’s Seaside Sparrow
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services
N/A
2016
- co-PI with Aaron Given (Town of Kiawah Island, SC)
- $11,750
*Seasonal connectivity of MacGillivray’s Seaside Sparrrow
Carolina Bird Club
N/A
2016
- co-PI with Aaron Given (Town of Kiawah Island, SC)
- $4,800
*Automated telemetry monitoring of migratory birds
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services
N/A
2014
- PI Scott McWilliams (University of Rhode Island)
- $7,426
*Acoustic monitoring of migrating bats and birds of Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuges
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services
N/A
2010
- PI Scott McWilliams (University of Rhode Island)
- $33,038
*Rapid assessment of fruits available to songbirds during fall migration
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services
N/A
2008
- PI Scott McWilliams (University of Rhode Island)
- $9,276
*Migratory connectivity: linking raptors to their breeding areas
Idaho Department of Fish & Game
N/A
2002
- PI Al Dufty (Boise State University)
- $17,900
Frank M. Chapman Memorial Research Grant
American Museum of Natural History
N/A
2002
E. Alexander Bergstrom Memorial Research Award
Association of Field Ornithologists
N/A
2002
Invited Talks
Southbound Merlin migration in southern New England and the mid-Atlantic (Automated telemetry symposium)
North American Ornithological Conference
Washington, DC
2016
- co-authored by S.R. McWilliams, R. Gray, and C. DeSorbo
Songbird migration and stopover dynamics along an ecological barrier
Connecticut College
New London, CT
2014
Contributed Talks
What is good quality habitat for migrating songbirds? A nutritional and physiological perspective
North American Ornithological Conference
Washington, DC
2016
- co-author with S.R. McWilliams, S.R., S. Smith-Pagano, L. Langlois, M. Skrip, and B. Pierce
Boosted zero-inflated negative binomial models for spatiotemporal abundance of sea birds
International Workshop on Statistical Modelling
Linz, Austria
2015
- co-author with B. Hofner
Spectating is stressful: witnessing two seconds of a predator attack increases levels of circulating glucocorticoids
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
West Palm Beach, FL
2015
- co-author with B.C. Jones, S.E. Bebus, and S.J. Shoech
Keeping fruit biochemistry in context: neighborhood influences on patterns of fruit consumption
Wilson Ornithological Society
Newport, RI
2014
- co-authored by S.R. McWilliams
Acoustic monitoring of migrating songbirds and bats in coastal Rhode Island
Northeast Regional Migration Monitoring Network
Winter Harbor, ME
2014
Coastal bat migration and weather: like the birds or for the birds
Natural Resources Science Seminar, University of Rhode Island
N/A
2013
What you don’t know can’t help you: linear mixed models in the environmental sciences
Natural Resources Science Seminar, University of Rhode Island
N/A
2012
Body condition influences the stopover decisions of a migratory songbird
Natural Resources Science Seminar, University of Rhode Island
N/A
2010
Inferring diets of migrating birds: are stable isotopes the answer?
Natural Resources Science Seminar, University of Rhode Island
N/A
2009
Teaching Experience
(Workshop) Motus wildlife tracking
ACE Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve
Charleston, SC
2018
- presented with N. Wallover and F. Sanders
(Workshop) Using the Motus wildlife tracking network to study avian migration pathways through the southeastern United States
Association of Southeastern Biologists
Myrtle Beach, SC
2018
- presented with K. Lefevre and S. Mackenzie
Raster Processing in R
USFWS Geospatial Training Workshop
Shepherdstown, WV
2016
Scientific Computing and Programming for Coastal Resource Management: Fundamental Concepts and Open Access Tools
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI
2014
- co-instructor with J. Hollister and P. August
Teaching Assistant, Wildlife Management Techniques
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI
2012
- Wildlife Management Techniques
Head Teaching Assistant, Human Anatomy and Physiology
Boise State University
Boise, ID
2004
Teaching Assistant, Human Anatomy and Physiology
Boise State University
Boise, ID
2003 - 2001
Advising
David Tilson, M.S. candidate committee member
University of Georgia
Athens, GA
2020
Undergraduate Natural Resources Science Research Apprenticeships (x2)
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI
2011